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life

Rambling Reflections: New Year’s Resolutions for 2026

It an early Friday morning, January 2, 2026. I have enjoyed the time away from work but need to get back into the routine of my daily life. I let my schedule slip and now I need to return to the real world. Another year is behind me, and a new one has begun. Does early to bed, early to rise, make a man healthy, wealthy and wise?

Let’s start with the obvious. I made some New Year’s resolutions for 2026. Let’s hope that they turn out better. As I look at last year’s results, I realize that 2025 was indeed a very bad year. Without going into the details, I need to spend 2026 recovering and returning to the old ways. Trying to reach out has brought pain at great cost. So, I will ignore the past but remember the lessons. Either I am stupid, lonely or just stopped thinking. Probably all of the above. Thus, I see less crypto, less talking to strangers and more road trips. Throw in some camping and fishing and I might have a better outcome.

Despite what the angry liberals suggest, 2025 rocked for America. It did not rock for me. For me, it is time to return to rugged individualism and advance myself through hard work and realize that the outside world is an evil place. It’s not even a nice place to visit. If the world is such an evil place, shall I plan for tomorrow like a prepper? Thus, I see more reading. Throw in some drawing and painting. Staying closer to home and family.

Over the next few months, I get to wade into the world of Medicare. As this is the year I turn 65, I find myself still working. Not because I need to. Rather, it is because I want to. I still haven’t refined that retirement plan just yet. As it is, I see that I need to consolidate, declutter and work around the house. Several projects planned. I hope that I can get them done before the summer. Invest in and spend my time on what I know.

I need to consolidate my investments and plan for the next act in my life. While the stock market has had another great year, I myself did not do so well in many external investments. Need to regroup and adjust accordingly. Write off my losses and continue to pay down debt. Return to being frugal and invest for the future. That said, I expect much volatility in the market in 2026. Much of that will be generated as the world shifts from the metaverse to the AI verse. If you thought that the metaverse was hyped and bad, the AI verse will be worse. For me, I just want my MTV.

As for this site, I need to write more frequently but be less verbose. Reflecting on this post, it has nothing on the subjects that are my typical tags. Nothing about my son or daughter. Both are doing well and home from school a tad longer, thank you. Nothing about horses. Ruby is retired and enjoying life with the other horses on the plains of Southeaster Colorado. Roman is on winter break from college, also in Colorado. Jewel is lying here on the sofa as I write this post. Trump is still our President. Contrary to what the fake news writes or speaks, his policies are turning the country around and putting it on a better path. I still despise him as a person. I don’t vote based on the personality of the person. Rather, I vote for what will make life better for our country. With that said, I cannot believe that America will turn 250 this year. Perhaps bicentennial coins might be a wise investment? As it is, I cannot believe that they retired the Lincoln cent!

Well, I have rambled on now for over two hours and several cups of coffee. Not really sure what I have said, but the words look good on the computer. They express optimism going into this new year. As a new year is upon us, and I hope that it is better than the last. With that, here’s hoping that Pearl Jam tours in 2026.

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life

My Transition: Embracing Change Amidst Life’s Busy Schedule

It has been a few months since my last post. My wish remains to post more often. This remains the goal as I get ready to renew my website and WordPress account. It gets to be problematic given all of the commitments on my time. Between work and kids, there are times where there are not enough hours during the weekday. By the weekend, I am so mentally tired. As the weather turns to spring, summer, and fall, my time commitments shift to outdoor adventures.

Needless to say, I have found this to be an interesting time in my life. Much has transpired since that last post. I have been very busy, both professionally and personally. I continue to do the same job. I have been doing my current job before I started writing TheMcKeeSpot. It began as an idea after a morning coffee cabal with a great colleague. He retired several years ago.

Over the past few years, many of my friends and colleagues have retired. Many return and “double dip” and work part-time as a contractor. As I contemplate my own retirement, I stay focused on retiring and not planning to be a contractor. Yet, economic changes are affecting my life. Personal changes in my life are also influencing my decision. These changes convince me that this represents a good “middle of the road” approach as I ease into retirement. I will probably follow in their footsteps when I do retire.

Recently, I got a promotion of sorts. This was after 15 years at the same level and job title. Obviously, a promotion should be a time to rejoice. Unfortunately, the HR processes at Los Alamos are broken. It was more of a way to reclassify people into the correct job title. It was not a real promotion. Many of the work processes are, in my opinion, broken.

I continue to do the same job that I have been doing for over a decade. However, there has been much change. Changes have been in terms of the people that I worked with and admired, and how work is performed. About the people, many who have worked on the project for years, retired. I am happy for them. None of the change has improved the work load, the work product, or made processes more efficient. Regarding the work environment, I have coined the phrase “bureaucratic work free safety zone” to characterize the entire place. It takes twice the number of people and twice as long to move ahead with even the simplest of activities.

Given all of this, my thoughts turn towards loosing myself in the wish to balance work and life. It has been a long time coming. Yet, I stay lost in the busy schedule of work. I often ignore family, friends, and self-care. Of late, I have vowed to change much of that focus as I contemplate retirement.

I have been planning much to do for myself over the next several months. This week, as I write this, I am in Phoenix addressing a medical issue. I have talked about this issue over the past few years. Enough procrastination has lapsed and now I am working the issue. In two weeks I have planned work travel, followed by another Pearl Jam concert. This will be followed with hiking and camping back east for a couple of weeks. I will be with a friend who has been great at uplifting me lately. This story remains a work in progress. Finally, June will follow with some fishing with great people in Alaska.

I plan to end the summer by traveling with the kids. The kids are preparing for school in August. A trip away will be a great way to end the summer. I also plan to decide on the next chapter of my life at this time.

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life

A Picturesque Sunrise in New Mexico: My Hurkle-Durkle Morning

After a fantastic dinner and an overall great evening last night, I went to bed about usual time. It was met with sleeping in later than my schedule allows. There is a 200-year-old term I learned on the internet called hurkle-durkle. It is a Scottish term meaning to lounge in bed long after it’s time to get up. Well, I certainly did the hurkle-durkle this morning.

I doubted that it was a real expression. However, sure enough, the internet was able to educate me on the subject. You can read about it here:

https://www.scotsman.com/news/scotland/hurkle-durkle-scots-word-meaning-origin-4491313

That said, I hurkle-durkled until 6:30 this morning. Absent coffee, I hurried up, got dressed, and drove to the stables in order to catch sunrise on my iPhone. I’ll save the why for another time. It was a beautiful morning. The stables were quiet, except for some horses, a few chickens crackling and some sheep. The air was crisp but had a very pleasant smell about it, surprising for an area with many horses.

According to my weather app, sunrise was at 7:04 am this morning. The fact that it was February 2nd, Groundhog’s Day, was not lost on me. Sunrise, I expected to see my shadow. Here is the first picture when I got to the riding arena at about 6:55 am this morning.

Just beginning to creep up and over the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Let me continue with its progression…in silence.

And there you have it. The last picture was around 7:12 am. Another beautiful sunrise in New Mexico. Not much orange in the colors of the clouds. But it was the start to another great day.

In my mind, I was reminded of the music from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Also sprach Zarathustra. You can close your eyes and here the opening notes. They almost parallel the rising sun. However, it looks like the sunrise was doing its own abbreviated form of the hurkle-durkle.

In some ways, a sunrise is like a new beginning. It is kinda how I have been feeling for the past several weeks. A new beginning for me. A new sunrise as I continue to travel through my life’s journey. More to come. Stay tuned.

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life the week in review

Early January 2025. What will the new year bring?

This marked a return to normalcy after the winter break. My daughter departed Saturday for the spring semester of her sophomore in college. Due the of breakfast on weekends we decided to visit Viola’s on Friday morning for a father-daughter. She left Roman in Colorado for the winter break. Remarkably, she managed to ride other horses over the break. She took a few lessons and earned a few dollars by taking care of other horses at the stables. I believe she would be happy if she could make a career out of that type of work.

My son returned to school earlier in the week and has already managed a week of high school classes. Now that his sister has left, he must hope for good weather in the afternoon. He cannot take the bus home. Therefore, he has to walk. Alternatively, he hopes that one of his parents can pick him up. His junior year is progressing better, but he is just doing the minimum to get through. For, breaks consist of playing computer games and spending a significant amount of time watching various videos on YouTube. He should have figured out a niche and become some type of YouTube influencer. I suppose there is still time.

I worry and wonder about their futures. I am concerned about how they will secure employment and what fields or careers they will pursue. I also wonder how they will take care of themselves, given the current state of this country. Will they have the opportunity to continue to enjoy the activities they do now in the future? Have I adequately prepared them for life after I am no longer around? It is evident that their lives today are vastly different from mine at their age.

A quiet dinner at an Olive Garden, sometime in 2017.

I can only hope and pray that I have prepared them for tomorrow.

As for me, I have returned to work, and I am thinking very hard as to when I will retire. I need to think about myself. I must consider my next 30+ years I believe I have left on this planet.

Today is a very cold Sunday in Los Alamos. I write this post on a very quiet day while contemplating taking the dog for a walk. The recent news is about the fires in southern California. Having twice evacuated over the past thirty years because of forest fires, I understand how those people feel. If you have the time to pack, you might wonder what will happen. Will you return to a pile of ashes? Fortunately for me, that was not the case. Sadly, there is much destruction in California over the past week.

I previously wrote about the fires in Los Alamos in May 2022. I also wrote about them in April 2022 and in May 2020. This post isn’t a further reflection of these types of disasters or the empathy that they trigger. Droughts, poor forest management and other contributors add to the lessons learned from these events. So far this winter, we have had very little snow in Northern New Mexico. What kind of weather will the spring, summer, and fall bring? Will our once a decade fire cycle be different?

Equally unmentioned until now was the return of the McRib after Thanksgiving. But it was a tasty reminder of several previous posts on this blog. But I didn’t mention it until now, nor did I critique the culinary experience.

The result the fires will be higher homeowners insurance rates in the coming year. I have already experienced increases in my automobile insurance. Given my current stage in life, I have added more coverage through an umbrella policy. This helps protect my family.

With the arrival of spring, I must downsize as part of my retirement strategy. Although I no plans to sell the house, I do need to focus on the backyard. My retirement planning also includes more hiking, more camping, and more travel. And perhaps, this will be the year I finally finish reading Atlas Shrugged!

Until next time.